Gantry techniques utilizing ServoBelt know-how can present the automotive trade with flexibility at a fraction of the price of rack-and-pinion techniques. Supply: Bell-Everman
Overhead pick-and-place gantries are an necessary a part of trendy automotive vegetation, shifting and positioning components with the velocity, precision, and reliability that high-volume manufacturing calls for. Historically, producers have confronted an equipment-selection dilemma, with the trade dominated by heavy-duty techniques constructed from huge metal fabrications. Designed for excessive payloads, these overbuilt techniques come from giant gear suppliers who supply sturdy engineering at a premium value, prolonged lead instances and restricted room for personalization.
Small and midsize automotive functions, nonetheless, don’t require such excessive capabilities, and in these instances, the outsized techniques signify a essential mismatch. Compounding this problem, the trade’s fast-moving manufacturing setting calls for suppliers who can adapt shortly, customise gantry techniques to particular software wants and ship inside aggressive time frames — necessities that many giant, established gear producers are unable to satisfy.
Luckily, a movement management system has emerged to fill this hole. Gantry techniques that includes ServoBelt know-how ship the industrial-grade sturdiness and customizability automotive manufacturing requires — at a fraction of the price of conventional rack-and-pinion techniques and with lead instances which are usually lower than half of these of bigger suppliers.
Equally necessary, superior beam engineering using T-slot extrusions ensures ServoBelt techniques meet the structural efficiency requirements producers count on from conventional rack and pinion gear.
For these causes, ServoBelt movement management know-how permits automotive producers to implement superior overhead automation with out compromising on the efficiency their manufacturing calls for.
Designing an overhead gantry for an automotive provider
Progressive Machine & Design (PMD), a {custom} automation firm in Victor, N.Y., was tasked with designing an automatic manufacturing line for a Tier 1 automotive provider. A part of a diesel engine camshaft manufacturing operation, the road would come with a pick-and-place gantry system to move components via a number of machining operations.
The manufacturing line consisted of sequential machining operations, with 4 to 5 machines at every stage. The gantry’s operate was to deal with the camshafts, from uncooked inventory to ultimate product, transporting them between the varied machining facilities.
The system was designed to select up the uncooked camshaft blanks and ship them to the primary set of machines. From there, it will transfer the components via completely different operations, together with grinding, lathing, and different machining processes. The gantry was designed to interface with the top-loading machining facilities and to exist above the machines, saving beneficial flooring house.
The core problem in the course of the design course of was to engineer a strong overhead gantry system that might navigate a decent plant format, deal with a two-camshaft payload weighing roughly 80 kg (176.3 lb.), and supply exact positioning for half supply into the machines.
Gantry-based robotics can transport supplies throughout manufacturing processes. Supply: Bell-Everman
ServoBelt drive delivers efficiency
For its gantry system, PMD included ServoBelt know-how — a linear drive system that mixes the reliable “rack and pinion” drive methodology with precision and anti-backlash traits because of a singular belt design. ServoBelt’s key options, similar to its ease of customization, excessive efficiency, and avoidance of overly greased metal racks, made it an acceptable alternative for this mission.
Design flexibility and customization: In contrast to inflexible, standardized techniques, ServoBelt know-how allowed PMD to customise the gantry’s measurement, top, and beam span to suit the precise plant format constraints.
This flexibility was a essential issue that “tipped the scales” in ServoBelt’s favor, in keeping with Brent Stratton, chief mechanical engineer at PMD.
Excessive efficiency with out over-engineering: ServoBelt delivered the required efficiency specs with out pointless over-engineering. Although able to even tighter precision, it supplied the mandatory quarter-millimeter positioning accuracy and will deal with high-speed journey, working at 3 m/s (6.7 mph) — nicely inside its functionality of 4 m/s (8.9 mph).
Lengthy-distance capabilities: A key benefit of ServoBelt is its distinctive belt-rack design, which eliminates belt stretch over any journey distance. This function allowed PMD to create an extended gantry that spanned a number of machining facilities with out sacrificing positioning accuracy.
“Whereas we don’t usually make techniques this lengthy, we might often attain for a continuous-loop or OMEGA-type drive,” Stratton mentioned. “However the great thing about the ServoBelt belt-rack system is that it takes all of the stretch out of the equation. You may go actually lengthy with out worrying about belt stretch in any respect.”
Future scalability: The modular nature of ServoBelt know-how helps future enlargement. If the operation finally requires extra machines, for instance, the gantry will be prolonged to accommodate the expanded format, offering a long-term and adaptable resolution.
ServoBelt has a design to eradicate belt stretch over any journey distance. Supply: Bell-Everman
Composite beam meets the trade’s structural requirements
Whereas ServoBelt supplied the movement management know-how, its beam design represented an equally essential engineering problem. Automotive producers used to conventional rack-and-pinion techniques have particular expectations relating to structural efficiency.
Composite aluminum beam affords structural efficiency. Supply: Bell-Everman
To satisfy these necessities, the Bell-Everman engineering group carried out intensive “beam science” work. It analyzed and optimized a number of structural traits like beam stiffness, deflection, torsional stiffness, torsional deflection, and space second of inertia. Every parameter performs an necessary position in guaranteeing the gantry maintains positioning below load and all through its journey vary.
In contrast to Bell-Everman’s conventional single-piece extrusion designs, this software required a brand new composite-beam development to attain the mandatory structural efficiency. The engineers designed a beam meeting utilizing versatile T-slot extrusions skinned in anodized aluminum, making a construction that eradicated deflection between mounting factors.
This composite strategy delivered a number of advantages. It supplied the structural rigidity required for the applying, provided the aesthetic look of premium industrial gear and maintained the customizability that made ServoBelt enticing within the first place.
As well as, the intensive design and testing work proved that the gantry system might meet the identical structural requirements as heavy-duty metal gear whereas sustaining price and lead time benefits.
Customized enhancements guarantee security and reliability
Along with the core gantry and beam, PMD designed and built-in a number of {custom} options to make sure the pick-and-place system operated safely and reliably. The controls included Allen Bradley drives and motors with Neugart gearboxes.
To deal with the payload, PMD chosen Schunk grippers with a security lock function that forestalls them from opening if air stress is misplaced. Engineers additionally designed a small Y-axis shift into the gripper design to accommodate minor positional misalignments of the machines.
For security, PMD carried out a threat evaluation. After figuring out the necessity for redundant Z-axis brakes, engineers tasked Bell-Everman with integrating these brakes into the gantry’s design. The corporate’s engineers supplied a clear design for the mixing of those brakes. The system’s drives additionally featured Secure Torque Off (STO) to satisfy security necessities.
To handle the problem of oily components and dripping coolant, PMD designed a sequence of drip trays, which served two functions: They saved coolant contained and prevented employees’ arms from coming into the gantry’s shifting components. Bell-Everman delivered the gantry with a bolt sample to facilitate the mixing of those custom-designed trays.
The ServoBelt-powered gantry robotic can enhance security and effectivity. Supply: Bell-Everman
Outcomes: Excessive-end automation at a decrease price
The ServoBelt-powered gantry system efficiently automated the camshaft transport course of, integrating seamlessly with the prevailing machining facilities and the shopper’s manufacturing execution techniques (MES) database.
- Operational success: The gantry system now handles the whole camshaft workflow, from the preliminary uncooked clean to the ultimate floor unit.
- Security and reliability: The gantry consists of many security enhancements, together with {custom} drip trays to comprise coolant and redundant brakes on the Z-axis. The gantry’s sturdy development and low upkeep necessities additionally guarantee long-term reliability.
- Value-effectiveness: By offering high-end linear motor efficiency at a considerably decrease price, ServoBelt know-how has enabled the implementation of superior automation with out the worth tag of over-engineered techniques.
The ServoBelt-powered gantry now delivers the exact, high-speed automation the provider wanted whereas preserving prices below management. It additionally fills a essential hole available in the market, offering producers with a high-performing different to outsized techniques for small to midsize payload functions that beforehand would have required defaulting to giant, heavy-duty gear.
“What made this mission work was our collaborative strategy with Bell-Everman and their skill to satisfy our distinctive requests — that’s what gained us over,” defined Stratton. “Even past simply assembly our speedy necessities, collectively we constructed one thing that might adapt and broaden as wants change.”
In regards to the writer
Parker Maccianti is lead mechanical engineer at Bell-Everman and has been with the corporate for 9 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Irvine.
This text is posted with permission.
